Media items such as video and audio items are often aggregated on a content sharing platform belonging to a content distributor for users to consume through streaming playback over the Internet. For example, the owner of a media item may upload the media item to a public content sharing platform so that users may easily discover the media item through search engines and enjoy the media item through streaming playback. The owner of the media item and/or the content distributor may want to monetize the media item. For example, the owner of the media item and/or the content distributor may decide that the media item should be distributed with advertisements in return to allowing the playback of the media item to be free of charge.
Users may use user devices to consume media items. User devices may include desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, handheld devices (such as portable media players and smart phones), and any suitable devices. Media content may include, but are not limited to, video clips, audio clips, and images which are collectively referred to hereinafter as media items. To ensure the monetization of the media items, the content distributor and/or the owners of the media items may prevent users from downloading the media items outright to their own user devices for fear of losing control of the media item.